Designing a Sustainable House

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The cold weather months are an ideal time to encourage students to think about how we heat our indoor spaces, and the environmental impacts of the choices we make.

This can lead to exercising their creativity by designing their own healthy, sustainable home.  This is a multi-step activity:

  1.  Review a variety of videos showcasing options for sustainable building design.
  2.  Play the Building Design Game that shows the cost and impact of several building options.
  3.  Create a floor plan and sketch of their own ideal, sustainable home.

Intro Videos

VIDEO #1  – A tour through a beautiful home built of cob – a sustainable building material (3.56 min).

VIDEO #2 – Brief introduction to the concepts of green, sustainable and healthy buildings (2.25 min).

VIDEO #3 – A Landscape architect discusses design principles in a house built entirely from local and sustainable materials (5.19 min).

VIDEO #4 -A sustainable design expert explains some of the best approaches to making homes more environmentally friendly (7.33 min).

VIDEO #5 -A brief tour of 10 sustainable homes in various locations around the world (8.02 min).

Building Design Game

Teacher Sherri Owen has created an activity that explores a variety of building options (roof, insulation, electricity, appliances, heating), and involves students in making selections based on available funds.  The game PDF contains complete instructions and templates for money and building parts that can be copied before playing the game.  A simple video walks you through the process of playing the game.

Building Design Game PDF
Game Video

Design Your Own Sustainable Home

Now, design your sustainable ‘Dream Home’!  Use everything you’ve learned about building options and costs, and create a sketch and floor plan of the home you’d like to live in.

Then, have a tour of Dream Homes!  Students can compare their designs and explain the decisions made in creating their home designs.  Were there difficult choices to make?

Make a Decorated Quinzhee

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  • February
  • Intermediate Years Deeper Activities, Middle Years Deeper Activities, Senior Years Deeper Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Shovels and buckets
  • Plenty of snow
  • Coloured ice cubes

Size of Group

1-10

Age Range

6-18 years

How to:

A quinzhee is a snow house made by piling snow into a huge mound shaped into a dome, and then carefully hollowing out the inside (making sure the walls remain thick).  Then, the outside can be decorated with pieces of coloured ice.

Quinzhees can be used as winter survival shelters.  This can be a great exercise in teamwork, and a large group can be split into smaller groups to build more than one quinzhee if there is enough snow.

Hearts in the Snow

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  • February
  • Activities, Early Years Deeper Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Ice cube tray (heart shapes if possible)
  • Water
  • Red food colour
  • Freezer

Size of Group

any

Age Range

2-5 years

How to:

For a fun game with young children around Valentine’s Day, try hiding coloured ice cubes in the snow and see how many they can find.  If you can access a heart-shaped ice-cube tray, that is perfect!  Otherwise, red coloured regular ice cubes will work as well.  If it’s cold enough, you can even freeze the cubes outdoors!

Snow Fleas

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  • February
  • Activities, Insects, Intermediate Years Quick Activities, Middle Years Quick Activities, Senior Years Quick Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Magnifiers
Snow Flea Video Link

Size of Group

any

Age Range

8-18

How to:

At this time of year, you may be able to find tiny, black specks on top of the snow. If they are jumping, they may be snow fleas (which are not actually fleas at all, but are “springtails”). Here is a short video about these amazing creatures. On a day when the sun is shining, and it’s above freezing, try looking for them in footprints on the snow.

Ice Orbs

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  • February
  • Activities, Early Years Quick Activities, Middle Years Quick Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Food Colouring
  • Balloons and/or Ice Cube Trays
  • Water
Icy Orbs Poster

Size of Group

any

Age Range

2-8

How to:

This is a fun activity for very cold weather.  Simply add food colouring to an empty balloon or ice cube tray.  Fill with water from the faucet and leave outdoors for 1-2 days (if the weather isn’t cold enough, a freezer will do the trick).  When frozen solid, peel away the balloon, or release the ice cubes and use the coloured ice to build beautiful outdoor creations!

Simple Birdfeeders

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  • February
  • Activities, Birds, Early Years Quick Activities, Middle Years Quick Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Popsicle Sticks, glue
  • Empty Milk Cartons, string
  • Lego blocks
  • Sunflower Seeds
Birdfeeder Poster

Size of Group

1-10

Age Range

5-10

How to:

Try making a simple birdfeeder with materials on hand.  Cut a hole in the side of an empty milk carton, or make a frame from popsicle sticks.  You can even make a simple holder for birdseed from lego blocks!  Fill with sunflower seeds and hang from a tree.  See how quickly the birds find it.

Swedish Snow Lanterns

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  • February
  • Activities, Early Years Quick Activities, Intermediate Years Quick Activities, Middle Years Quick Activities, Winter

Materials Needed

  • Packing Snow
  • Candle or Flashlight
Snow Lantern Poster

Size of Group

any

Age Range

4-12 years

How to:

These traditional Swedish snow lanterns are made from dozens of snowballs that are layered to form a hollow cone shape.  Inside the lantern, lights or candles can be used to create a beautiful glow through the holes between the snowballs.

Frozen Sun Catchers

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Frozen Sun Catchers

A recipe for easy mid-winter magic

January 23, 2019

Ingredients

  • Found nature objects – Twigs, leaves, berries, pine cones
  • Container to freeze the water in – aluminum pie plates are perfect!
  • Water
  • Something to hang them: twine, yarn, ribbon
  • Freezing temperatures

Steps

  1. Lay out your nature objects in the base of your container for freezing
  2. Lay the twine amidst the nature objects with a large loop or two loose ends hanging out – this will be your hang or tie 
  3. Place your creations on a flat outdoor surface where they can freeze undisturbed (window sill, picnic table, etc.)
  4. Slowly pour in water until the container is full and ensure your twine/ribbon are still submerged
  5. Set the outdoor temperature to below freezing 😉 **freeze overnight for best results

Hang this ice art from a tree branch in a sunny spot where the sun will shine through and slowly melt it away, transforming your creation throughout the day.

Tips

  • play with colours, textures, patterns… Eating oranges?  Add visual a-peel with pieces of rind or slices interspersed 
  • Make minis in ice cube trays
  • Fancy a rainbow catcher? Add food coloring
  • Use bundt pans for a frozen wreath

 

Warning: This recipe will quickly become a staple on your nature crafting menu!

 

Stories in the Soft Snow

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Stories in the Soft Snow

A lesson in animal tracking with Jacob Rodenburg

“We humans often think we’re the only ones who write stories, but in truth animals write stories in the soft snow every winter, and we can follow them and learn what they were doing…It’s just nice for us to know that animals have a life – they’re looking for food, they’re finding shelter.  It’s great to get out in the cold winter with your family and follow tracks.” 

Jacob Rodenburg, Executive Director, Camp Kawartha and co-author of The Big Book of Nature Activities: A Year-Round Guide to Outdoor Learning

January 23, 2019 – Some animals hibernate but you don’t need to!  In this lovely video lesson in Animal Tracking, Jacob Rodenburg, Executive Director at Camp Kawartha shares the joy and rich learning that arise when a fresh blanket of snow reveals the oft-hidden lives of animals all around us, through their tracks in the snow.  All we need to do is venture out and follow along.

VIDEO: A Lesson in Animal Tracking with Jacob Rodenburg

Watch as Jacob introduces us to animal tracking in the snow, demonstrating a great winter tracking activity we can all try with the children in our lives, as well as what to look for as we venture out and onto a fresh blanket of snow.  This clip is both a playful demonstration and chalk full of fun facts and important naturalist insights.

Ready to try?  Jacob shares two great steps for getting started:

Step 1 – When you look at an animal track, try to figure out what direction it was going in?  Often when animals walk they have a scuff mark at the heal which is a good hint which way it was going.

Step 2 – How was it moving? Walking? Stride is close together.  Why is this stride so long?  Was the animal running?

As you follow its trail, what was the animal doing? Look for: was it running, was it walking, was it eating?

Look alongside the sidewalks or the trails you travel.  Have you seen the tracks Jacob stamped in the snow?

Thanks to Jacob for sharing the stories of animals in the snow!

Follow an animal Pathway – where will it lead?

Want more info?  Enjoy these articles: Take it Outside: Enjoying the Gifts of Winter, by Jacob Rodenburg and How to be a Winter Wildlife Detective, by David Bree of Ontario Parks.

 

Cold, Wet, Muddy and Fun

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Cold, Wet, Muddy and Fun

January 23, 2019 – Our Cold, Wet, Muddy and Fun! workshop with Sue Ferren was so true to name!  Not only did we experience first-hand all of the chilly temps, rain, mud and snow within the span of our Saturday morning together, but we enjoyed a rich morning of learning, sharing and FUN.  Sue revealed the magic that can be found when we courageously bundle our wee ones and venture out, whatever the weather! 

All 15 folks who attended, including 2 wee ones, were led on a clear pathway to providing the invitation, clothing and materials necessary for children to explore, create and engage in any weather.  Sue shared her wealth of knowledge, beautifully curated resources, an enviable nature-themed library, and a treasure trove of hands-on activities – both indoor and out – for us to explore.  She also shared the challenges and barriers we know can keep the most intrepid explorers from venturing out, and ways to make that challenge more manageable and more fun.


In the warmth of the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre we brainstormed Barrier Breakers, models of how to bring nature in, loose parts of every description, and shared stories of mishaps and magic-making with wee ones in all weather.  Then we were invited outdoors on a beautiful story walk with the laminated pages of In the Snow – Who’s Been Here.  The story trail wove us through the cedar grove and opened to a clearing lovingly spread with activity centres showcasing simple and powerful activities to spark early years engagement.  Mud kitchens, rain-filled tube mazes, tarp painting, and making nature-found masterpieces within empty ornate frames – all ready for hours of exploration.  The wee ones who had been enjoying the morning under the watchful care of Jumping Mouse’s Martine Cleary, joined us to explore these centres.  It was immediately obvious that with a few thoughtful materials, comfortable all-weather clothing, and adults willing to venture out, cold, wet and muddy are Fun!